bone

/bəʊn/

noun

1.

any of the various structures that make up the skeleton in most vertebrates

2.

the porous rigid tissue of which these parts are made, consisting of a matrix of collagen and inorganic salts, esp calcium phosphate, interspersed with canals and small holes related adjectives osseous osteal

3.

something consisting of bone or a bonelike substance

4.

(pl) the human skeleton or body: they laid his bones to rest, come and rest your bones

5.

a thin strip of whalebone, light metal, plastic, etc, used to stiffen corsets and brassieres

6.

(pl) the essentials (esp in the phrase the bare bones): to explain the bones of a situation

Old English ban "bone, tusk," from Proto-Germanic *bainam (cf. Old Frisian ben, Old Norse bein, Danish ben, German Bein). No cognates outside Germanic (the common PIE root is *os-; see osseous); the Norse, Dutch, and German cognates also mean "shank of the leg," and this is the main meaning in Modern German, but English never seems to have had this sense.

v.

especially in bone up "study," 1880s student slang, probably from "Bohn's Classical Library," a popular series in higher education published by German-born English publisher Henry George Bohn (1796-1884) as part of a broad series of "libraries" he issued from 1846, totaling 766 volumes, continued after 1864 by G. Bell & Sons.

The hard, dense, calcified tissue that forms the skeleton of most vertebrates, consisting of a matrix made up of collagen fibers and mineral salts. There are two main types of bone structure: compact, which is solid and hard, and cancellous, which is spongy in appearance. Bone serves as a framework for the attachment of muscles and protects vital organs, such as the brain, heart, and lungs. See more at osteoblast, osteocyte.

Any of the structures made of bone that constitute a skeleton, such as the femur. The human skeleton consists of 206 bones.